


When They Need Someone, Valentine's Day

by ThatWildWolf



Series: When I Need You [6]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, RMS Titanic, Romantic Friendship, Romantic Settings, Valentine's Day Fluff, the Doctor turns out to be a gentleman for once
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-06-05 22:06:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15180380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatWildWolf/pseuds/ThatWildWolf
Summary: The Doctor takes Sarah to a candle-lit dinner on the Titanic. Fluff with a tiniest bit of drama.





	When They Need Someone, Valentine's Day

Sarah glanced out of the TARDIS as she cracked the door open a bit.

"Don't peek," the Doctor's voice warned her, but she could tell he wasn't really angry. She closed the door. Oh, she could listen to him at least this once. After all, it didn't happen so often that he actually had a 'surprise' - as he had called it - for her.

"Alright, Doctor." She turned round to face him. "What is it?" He wasn't there at all. From how he was shouting to answer her, she could tell he could very well be at the far end of the ship.

"You'll need to change into something more appropriate for the period!" It didn't answer her question.

"What period?" She shouted back.

"Just go to the TARDIS wardrobe and she'll pick something for you!" Right. Wardrobe. And where was that supposed to be? "Turn left, down the corridor, third door on the right!"

She shook her head with an amused laugh. Sometimes, she couldn't even tell if he was actually reading her thoughts or just had perfect timing.

She followed the directions and soon found herself in a room she had never seen before. It was most certainly the wardrobe, for she could notice some of the Doctor's clothes laying around in a messy manner. He had never been very tidy, had he? She had just sort of hoped the TARDIS would auto-clean the room or something like that, which it clearly didn't.

"Okay," Sarah said to the ship. She had once felt awkward while doing that. Now she was pretty much fine with it. She knew perfectly well that the TARDIS was a sentient being, and she liked to think they were friends in some way. "What do you think would be appropriate for me in the time period outside?"

One of the many wardrobes in the room opened itself.

"These?" Sarah asked, holding up a black velvet dress. She wasn't an expert, but she reckoned the steady hum the ship produced in response was a yes. "But these are all dresses," she complained aloud. She didn't like wearing dressed and skirts; she had always preferred trousers. She thought she could make this sacrifice for the Doctor, though – he seemed very excited about whatever he had arranged for them.

In the end, she decided she would wear the pearl white gown, mainly because it went with long, sleek gloves and a pearl necklace. She put it on – everything in the room was her size, no doubt thanks to the TARDIS – and admired herself in the mirror. It could have been worse, she decided.

"Fine now?" She asked pointedly as soon as she made it back to the console room.

"Oh!" He noticed her entrance and tugged at the bow tie he was trying to tie around his neck. "Sarah-!" He broke off and stared at her. She blushed. Amazing. She knew she couldn't look very well in the old-fashioned gown, but she personally hadn't thought it was that bad until one look at her turned out to be enough to make him speechless. "You look… wonderful," he finally choked out and she had to blush again, this time because she was actually flattered. She knew the Doctor didn't give away compliments like this very often, so she figured he really must have thought she looked good.

He, in turn, looked… Strange. Not really strange strange, but he was wearing normal clothes. It was formal clothing, but still. Sarah hadn't thought she would ever see the Doctor wear something normal in her life. He was dressed in normal black trousers, a plain white shirt and a black smoking. There was also an unknotted bow tie hanging on his neck. From the way he nervously tugged at his collar, he would be happy to trade it for one of his ridiculously long scarves.

"Come on, I'll help you," she offered. He complied without a word of protest and as she knotted the bow tie, Sarah thought about the absurdity of the situation. Five hundred years old and yet she has to help him with his tie? _The Doctor's a child_ , she snorted. "There."

"Thank you, Sarah." The tone of his voice left it unclear whether he really meant it or was just messing around. "What would I ever do without you?"

She gave a short laugh.

"Die a horrendous death, probably."

"Probably," he agreed with a grin. "Now. Shall we be off?"

She grabbed his arm with what she liked to consider a coquettish smile.

"By all means."

A brief expression of joy crossed his face as he held the door open for her.

Sarah tried to take in their surroundings as soon as possible, mainly because the Doctor had tried so hard to prevent her from seeing it before. It wasn't, as she had expected, any alien planet or anything – instead, it appeared that the TARDIS had materialised in the corner of a ballroom in the early 1920s. There were people all around them, all dressed in a way similar to them, talking or playing card games on the few tables standing in the middle of the room. Sarah wasn't sure how to comment on that: the whole place looked rather expensive and refined, even for the standards of the era.

"It looks… posh," she noticed. She couldn't find a better world. "Where are we?"

The Doctor glanced round at the luxurious décor and wealthy-looking people around them.

"It's the year 1911 AD," he said. "And this, my dear Sarah, is the _Olympic_ -class ocean liner, RMS ' _Titanic_ ' _._ "

History. Sarah looked around in wonder, this time seeing things in a different light. The Doctor had mentioned the Titanic at least a few times, if she recalled correctly, but she had never even considered they could actually go there. Then again, she hadn't considered meeting Leonardo da Vinci or going to medieval England, and yet she had done those too. Yes, with the Doctor, history suddenly became just a step away.

"Why didn't you take Harry along? He would have loved it." She was still looking around in wonder.

"I-" He broke off. "I wanted it to be just you and me."

"Why?" She was confused, but then it all clicked and she grinned. "Oooooh, I see. What's the special occasion, then?"

"Well, it is- I mean- It is our... anniversary, after all."

Sarah cocked her head. "Anniversary?" As far as she was aware, they weren't even dating.

"A year." He explained. "Since we first met."

So he _had_ kept track of it, then. She had always been suspecting that much. It was awfully hard to tell the time in the TARDIS, especially since there was no day or night and Sarah's irregular sleep sessions were the only indicator of time passage. But she had always thought that the Time Lord not only knew what day it was, but also must have somehow kept track of the dates.

But a year? She wouldn't have thought that. It felt like a lifetime ago. Still, it somehow meant that, first of all, she finally knew how old she was, and that it meant time was not that harsh. If you could do so much in just one year, imagine what you could do in another. Or two. Or ten. Somewhere in the back of her head, she was aware that this wasn't going to last forever, but she couldn't really pay much attention to that at the moment.

"Come on," he grabbed her hand impatiently and almost dragged her through the hallway. "We'll be late!"

"Late for what?" She laughed. He really had arranged something! She couldn't believe it.

"I've booked us a table," he said, apparently very proud of himself.

"It's a ship. I'm pretty sure you don't have to book a table here."

"It's the most luxurious liner in the world," he pointed out. "You _do_ have to book a table in the restaurant."

She couldn't argue with that logic, so she just followed the Doctor, all the while trying to take in as much of their surroundings as possible. She also noticed with some amusement that he seemed to know exactly where he was going. He really had arranged something.

They soon reached what looked like a very posh restaurant and even there, the Doctor had no problem with getting on with it. Whatever 'it' was.

"I have a reservation in the name of John Smith." He always seemed to take demonic pleasure in using her last name for his own intents. She couldn't recall the last time they hadn't pretended they were either siblings or a married couple after having been arrested (which happened quite often, now that she thought about it). Of all the names in the universe, he had to stick with that one. At first she just thought that it was a coincidence. It was a very common name, after all, and it just figured that would be what the Doctor would choose for his alias. But as time went on, she developed a constantly growing suspicion that he was doing it on purpose. Mr and Mrs Smith. He always looked so smug when he introduced them. Then again, she got her vengeance when she recently began explaining their relationship herself: she usually made Harry her fiance or boyfriend, while the Doctor her brother. It was their way of a friendly competition, she supposed. She only felt a bit sorry for poor Harry, who had somehow become a means of playing each other up for both Sarah and the Doctor. But it was fine. She had never seen him complain – even more so, he seemed happy that the two were getting on the way they were.

"Sarah?" The Doctor's voice brought her back to reality. _Reality_ , sure. A dinner aboard the Titanic! Honestly, it was somewhat hard to tell what was real in this life. "Are you alright?"

"Yes." She glanced round nervously. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"…I don't know," he admitted. "You looked absent."

"Well, I was thinking. We humans tend to do that sometimes," she taunted.

"You do?" He mocked a gasp of surprise. "I hadn't noticed."

She opened her mouth to answer with some witty comment, but of course, she couldn't come up with any, so she just settled for an angry (and quite unladylike) growl. He laughed, which infuriated her even more. It was that familiar anger which, she noticed, was only reserved for the Doctor – she wanted to kill him and kiss him at the same time.

She didn't have much more time to be angry at him, though, because a waited walked up to them and ushered them towards a balcony. There were fewer tables here than inside, but nearly all of them were occupied.

They sat down by the table at the far end of the deck. _Candles_?! Sarah looked at the Doctor, who just grinned. What was he up to?

_Anniversary_ , she reminded herself. Maybe it's a more important thing to celebrate back on Gallifrey. She thought it made sense that in a community with a huge age difference span not to celebrate birthdays. She imagined the Time Lords threw parties on anniversaries of their friendships or graduations. Yes, it made sense.

They browsed the bill of fare in silence for a while. Sarah didn't even look at the prices – she knew the Doctor had a limitless amount of money, otherwise he wouldn't have set anything up at all.

She looked down the balcony. The water was still and it reflected the last rays of sunlight gracefully. The sun was setting already and the sky was now mostly dark, though just above the horizon, it maintained a deep orange colour. The stars were slowly beginning to show.

Sarah found herself gazing up at the sky in wonder. Her current lifestyle put everything into perspective; she wondered how many of these lights were in fact planets such as the one she lived on, how many different civilizations were up there. How many of them had she aleady visited.

"I hope you like the view." She knew that he meant the stars because that was what he was looking at and, besides, there wasn't really anything else to look at.

"They're different from up close," she said.

He looked at her seriously.

"Everything is. Sarah-"

He was interrupted by the waiter who came to collect their order, which caused Sarah to yet again glance through the menu and then panic when she realised she had never seen the Doctor eat anything. She just hoped he wouldn't order anything like bits of paper or cat food or some alien fruit which only existed on Gallifrey.

"I'll have the steak. Medium rare."

Okay. No weird alien food preferences, then.

"And I'd like a Ceasar salad," Sarah added, still looking through the menu.

"Anything to drink?" The waited scribbled their order in a notebook.

"Yes, we'll have two glasses of brut champagne," the Doctor said before Sarah managed to ask for the fizzy water she had been intending to order.

"Is that all, sir?" Sarah stiffened a laugh at someone calling the Doctor 'sir'. Even in this attire, he looked childish to her.

"Yes, thank you." The Doctor was unaffected by her giggles.

A silence fell between the two. They looked at the gentle waves splashing against the ship's side. It was peaceful.

"I suppose this is what life comes down to," Sarah laughed eventually. "Is this already some sort of moral insensitivity?"

"What do you mean?" The Doctor looked up at her.

"That half of these people are going to be dead in a few months and we're not touched by that in any way."

"And would it help if we were 'touched'?"

"No, I suppose not." She seemed hesitant.

The Doctor nervously drummed his fingers on the table. He had thought the Titanic would be a good setting for an anniversary dinner for them; after all, it had all the qualities humans considered important: it was romantic, expensive and elegant. What he hadn't predicted was that Sarah could react to it with sorrow. Of course, he knew of the tragedy of the Titanic, but for him it only made the setting more interesting. He hadn't thought it could be _dramatic_ for her. So what he needed to do now was take her mind off the heavy subjects. Or even get to the point straight away.

"Sarah, I've been thinking…" He drifted off, hesitant.

"That's new," she laughed. He smiled briefly, but got serious again.

"I've been thinking," he repeated. "About us. I-"

But he didn't get to finish because at that moment, the waiter had returned with their dishes (suspiciously fast, the Doctor noticed with irritation) and the subject got dropped in favour of eating.

He managed to maintain a mostly casual conversation through most of the meal and even later, when they finished eating, but Sarah couldn't help but notice that the Doctor was distracted by something. She frowned.

"Is everything alright?" He stood up with a sigh and walked over to the edge of the balcony. She followed him unsurely. "Doctor?"

He fiddled with his glass of champagne as he stared at the horizon. His brow was furrowed, like always when he thought about something very hard. Sarah bit her lip in silent anticipation.

"Sarah, I wanted to ask you something."

_'Will you marry me?'_ She thought, amused. Now, _that_ was highly unlikely, but what with the romantic setting, and the candle-lit dinner with champagne... She wasn't really sure what exactly was on his mind.

"Are you happy, Sarah?" He looked down at her; it was clear that he had been thinking about this for a very long time and her answer meant much to him.

She stared at him. It wasn't what she had been meaning to do, and it definitely wasn't something she would have done had the circumstances been any different, but she did it anyway. He had simply taken her by surprise. She had been expecting everything - knowing the Doctor, everything was possible - but not something that simple.

"Why are you even asking?" She didn't want to appear so, but she was touched. Didn't she look happy enough for him?

"I need to know if what we're doing..." He apparently decided that this sentence hadn't gone the right way, so he started over. "It's very important for me to know if what we do is what you want to do."

"What?" She cocked her head at him with that cute pout on her face. The Doctor stammered. It was hard enough to keep his mind on the conversation when she wasn't being overly adorable. Then again, what he considered 'overly adorable' was when she was angry or offended. Which probably explained why she won so many arguments.

"I mean… Travelling around the universe. With me." _And Harry, for the moment, but don't mention Harry. He's not the important part of it all._ "Does it make you feel… felicitous?" He cringed at his vocabulary. Better keep it simple. "Are you happy?"

Sarah stared at the Doctor as though he had asked her whether the sky was blue. She had thought the answer was more than obvious. Travelling with him? She loved doing that. The universe was vast and mysterious, but appealing and fascinating at the same time. And the Doctor was simply amazing. She couldn't think of anyone else she would rather have by her side through all that danger. A year…? Yes, she had to admit that she had completely lost track of time since she had met him, but she wouldn't have thought that it had been so short. Now that she looked back on it, she couldn't imagine her life _without_ the Doctor, and the thought that it had once been so scared her deeply. How had she managed? No, life was only worthwhile now. Travelling among the stars with the Doctor? It was all she could have asked for.

"Doctor, you are the fulfilment of my dreams," she answered honestly and immediately bit her tongue. " _This_ is the fulfilment of my dreams." She quickly corrected. What was happening with her? She was completely sure what she had been intending to say and yet it somehow came out as something else.

He didn't notice. If he did, he didn't care.

"That's good." He nodded. "I wouldn't want to drag you along despite your will."

"You wouldn't manage," she countered with a laugh.

"Ha." It was a simple acknowledgement that she had the higher ground. He held up his glass in a toast. "To the future, then." It would be, it appeared, their mutual future. Which was something worth celebrating.

And there was a spark in Sarah's eye when she raised her glass and looked at him in a way that he could describe as almost… _defiant_. As if she were daring him to disagree. He held that gaze. After all, it had only been a year. They had barely begun. Who knows what else would life have in stock for them?

"To the future."


End file.
